| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Ferdinand. What do you purpose?
Alva. It has been resolved to arrest them.--You are astonished! Learn what
you have to do; the reasons you shall know when all is accomplished.
Time fails now to unfold them. With you alone I wish to deliberate on the
weightiest, the most secret matters; a powerful bond holds us linked
together; you are dear and precious to me; on you I would bestow
everything. Not the habit of obedience alone would I impress upon you; I
desire also to implant within your mind the power to realize, to command,
to execute; to you I would bequeath a vast inheritance, to the king a most
useful servant; I would endow you with the noblest of my possessions,
that you may not be ashamed to appear among your brethren.
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is
not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than
death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me,
and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is
unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by
you to suffer the penalty of death,--they too go their ways condemned by
the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must abide by
my award--let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be
regarded as fated,--and I think that they are well.
And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I
am about to die, and in the hour of death men are gifted with prophetic
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient
beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from
our present course. . .both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons,
both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing
to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of Mankind's
final war.
So let us begin anew. . .remembering on both sides that civility
is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.
Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
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